Lawler offers Condit a rematch after epic title fight

MANILA, Philippines -- Robbie Lawler successfully defended his Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight title by edging Carlos Condit via split decision Sunday at UFC 195 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The 33-year-old Lawler, who has a Filipino blood, won it on two judges' scorecards, 48-47, and lost one, 47-48, in one of the closest championship fights in history decided by a ferocious fifth and final round assault launched by the fighter aptly nicknamed "Ruthless."

It was Lawler's second successful title defense after beating Rory MacDonald at UFC 189 last July also in Las Vegas to improve to 27-10 (win-loss) with 1 NC (No Contest) while Condit, 31, fell to 30-9.

After the great fight, Lawler said it deserves a rematch.

“Carlos is a helluva fighter, comes from one of the best camps in the world,” Lawler said after the fight. “He had a great game plan, we battled it out. There are two winners tonight. Let’s do it again.”

Condit, for his part, told UFC.com felt he won it.

“I felt like I had three rounds in the bag, but that’s why you don’t leave it to the judges,” he said.

It was a showdown that could have gone either way as both Lawler and Condit engaged in a non-stop battle in five frenetic rounds considered as a bout for the ages.

UFC, in fact, gave the Lawler-Condit brawl the top fight honors with the champion landing 44 percent of his signifant strikes (78/177) and the former interim welterweight champion landing 39 percent (196/502).

Stipe Miocic knocked out former heavyweight king Andrei Arlovski in less than a minute while Michael McDonald won via submission over Masanori Kanehara to earn performance of the night bonuses.

All four received $50,000 each.